Born 150 Years Ago Today: The Man Who Was Uncle Wiggily

travsd

Apr 25

Born 150 years ago this day: Howard Roger Garis (1873-1962), most notable for creating the children's book character Uncle Wiggily. The title of this post is derived from that of his son's 1966 book My Father Was Uncle Wiggily.

Garis was a reporter for the Newark Evening News who wrote over 11,000 stories featuring his star character for the paper for five decades starting in 1910. These were collected and published in nearly 80 children's books.

The whimsical, funny Uncle Wiggily was a favorite of mine when I was a kid. He was an elderly yet spry rabbit gentleman, usually depicted in a top hat and swallowtail coat. He walked with a single red, white and blue cane that looked like a barber pole, necessary due to his rheumatism. He also drove an old fashioned convertible car with a steering wheel made of rutabaga, which he could nibble when he was hungry. The character was basically an old bachelor, beloved by all the neighborhood children. My parents read these books to me when I was small; in turn, I read I read them to my kids around the turn of the present century. For some reason, I gave Uncle Wiggily a voice inspired by Bullwinkle and Goofy, though he's never depicted as foolish, as those two characters are. It just seemed to go with the illustrations.

The books were popular enough in their day to merit a Milton Bradley board game based on his adventures, to be referenced in J.D. Salinger's story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut", and in the movie Forest Gump, to have a grunge band named after him, and a chain of Baltimore ice cream shops. If you've never heard of the stories before -- now you have.

Born in Binghamton, New York, Garis wrote scores of non-Wiggily children's books as well, usually under pseudonyms, including several in the Tom Swift and Bobsey Twin series, The Mystery Boys, Baseball Joe, and numerous others,

His wife, Lilliam McNamara Garis (1873-1964) also wrote hundreds of books for many of these same series and others. She was the first female reporter for the Newark News, originally writing women's columns under the name "Lillian Mack". Both of their children, Roger and Cleo, both went into the family trade, as well. Roger's daughter Leslie Garis (b. 1943), also became a writer. Her chronicle of the family's ups and downs, The House of Happy Endings, was published in 2007.